New Delhi: Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old Jharkhand-based Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) last month in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence, will have to wait till December at least to get a straw and sipper cup which he needs as a Parkinson’s disease patient, as well as winter clothes.
The agency Thursday told a special NIA court in Mumbai that it did not confiscate Swamy’s straw and sipper at the time of his arrest.
Lodged in the Taloja Central prison, Swamy had filed an application at the start of this month, demanding that the straw and sipper cup seized from him during his arrest be returned. The prosecution had then sought 20 days to file a reply to this application and the matter was posted for 26 November.
Swamy was arrested on 8 October from Ranchi and brought to Mumbai the next day. The NIA’s chargesheet, filed soon after, had named Swamy, along with Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap and Milind Teltumbde.
Swamy’s lawyer Sharif Shaikh told ThePrint, “NIA is relying on the panchnama at the time of his arrest to claim that they did not seize any sipper from him. On the contrary, according to my instructions, the straw and sipper cup was in the bag, which was seized by the NIA.”
After the NIA’s submission Thursday, the special court rejected Swamy’s application. Following this, his lawyer filed a fresh application seeking permission to supply him a straw and sipper cup, as well as winter clothes inside the jail premises.
The court has now sought a report in response from the superintendent of Taloja Central Prison. The matter will next be heard on 4 December.
Also read: Priest, activist, ‘Naxal backer’ — who’s Stan Swamy, latest NIA arrest in Bhima Koregaon case
Bail application also filed
Swamy had also filed a bail application on merit in the special court, Shaikh told ThePrint. On 22 October, his interim bail application on medical grounds, citing his age and prevailing health conditions, was rejected by Special Judge Dinesh E. Kothalikar.
Shaikh had then argued that Swamy has Parkinson’s disease and was not able to even sign the vakalatnama when he was produced before court by the NIA. The legal team took his thumb impression, it was submitted.
The NIA, however, opposed his application contending that he was trying to take “undue benefit” of Covid-19 to seek bail.
In its chargesheet, the NIA claimed that Swamy was in communication with other Communist Party of India (Maoist) cadres and had propagated that the arrest of cadres from different parts of country, particularly in Maharashtra, caused a “huge irrevocable damage to CPI (Maoist)”.
The NIA has also alleged that Swamy received funds from other Maoist cadres for the furtherance of the activities of CPI (Maoist).
Also read: 2 years, 3 charge sheets & 16 arrests — Why Bhima Koregaon accused are still in jail